IMPACT OF DIVIDEND POLICY ON FIRM VALUE

SYNOPSIS

INTRODUCTION

Dividend policy has been an issue of interest in financial literature especially in the context of quoted firms, whose shareholders spread across different income group, tax bracket and other classification that could significantly affect dividend decisions of the firm. Dividend is commonly defined as the distribution of earnings (past or present) in real assets among the shareholders of a company in proportion to their ownership stake. Management of any company has to make decision that does not only affect the performance and profitability of their firm, they also make decisions on how to distribute the accrued profit optimally so as to maximise shareholders’ wealth as well as run the company as a going concern by adopting a suitable dividend policy.Dividend policy here connotes the pay-out policy, which managers pursue in deciding the size and pattern of dividend (cash or stock or both) distribution to shareholders over time. Management primary goal is shareholders’ wealthmaximization, which translates into maximizing the value of the company as measured by the price of the company’s common stock among others. This goal can be achieved by giving the shareholders a “fair” payment on their investments. Over the years, theories have emerged as to the impact of dividend policy on firm’s value, although, there have been conflicting research findings among researchers in this area hence the need for this study.The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of dividend policy on firm value in Nigeria. The specific objectives were to access the impact of: (i)dividend per share on the market value of Nigerian listed companies,(ii) retained earnings on the market value of Nigerian listed companies, (iii)dividend per share on earnings per share of Nigerian listed companies, and (iv) retained earnings on earnings per share of Nigerian listed companies.